Tim Lincecum

In a baseball season frequently dubbed "the year of the pitcher" because of the sudden proliferation of dominant mound performances seemingly helping to shut the door on Major League Baseball's notorious "steroid era," we are being treated to an encore presentation in the 2010 postseason.

So far in the 2010 NLDS we have seen one dominating sweep from a team seeking their third straight World Series appearance and another series go back and forth with three thrilling games so far.

The Phillies have already clinched their spot in the NLCS with an easy three-game sweep of the Cincinnati Reds, including a no-hitter from Roy Halladay.

In the other series we have seen some dominating pitching along with some late inning heroics throughout the first three games. Right now the Giants lead the series 2-1 but honestly it could have gone in any number of directions.

As so dubbed by fans and critics across the country, the 2010 Major League Baseball season has been the Year of the Pitcher. This title is well deserved, as perfect games were thrown by Dallas Braden and Roy Halladay and no-hitters were twirled by Ubaldo Jimenez, Edwin Jackson, and Matt Garza. And no one will forget the rather infamous 28-out perfect game that Armando Galaraga gave us.

Game Two between the San Francisco Giants and the Atlanta Braves is set to begin in less than an hour. The Giants are coming off of a big win last night in Game One, led by a dominant Tim Lincecum. The two-time Cy Young Award winner struck out 14 Braves hitters to give the Giants a 1-0 victory. Tonight, the Giants send Matt Cain to the mound.

They say things come in threes right?

Well, things certainly came in threes on Thursday. We saw three divisional round games with three bad umpire calls that lead to three victories.

Last night was the most dominating playoff performance by a Giants starting pitcher possibly ever.

Complete game, two hits, 14 strikeouts.

It was only Lincecum's second complete game of the season. He also matched a career high in strikeouts. He struggled a bit in the first inning but figured it out after that.

Lincecum seemed to be overly excited and gave up a leadoff double to the Braves' Omar Infante. The double seemed to settle him down and Timmy was able to pitch his game.

He was in complete control.

The 2010 MLB Playoffs are only just underway—each NLDS series is only one game old—and we've got both drama and storylines. Rarely has the first six games of a baseball playoff season been so eventful.

As we head into this weekend's games, here's a look at the storylines that have begun to develop. Some teams are doing the opposite of what we expected, while Derek Jeter and the New York Yankees are doing exactly what we expected.

Let's have a look.

Atlanta Braves outfielder Eric Hinske is a career .254 hitter who never batted .280, never slugged 25 home runs, never scored 100 runs, and never drove in 85 runs.

Making matters worse, all of his career highs in those categories came in his rookie season, possibly showing he peaked too early.

Stats aside, he couldn’t be more valuable to teams hoping to contend.

How can today's slate of games possibly compare to the events of yesterday? Roy Halladay's first career playoff start was beyond exceptional and resulted in only the second no-hitter in playoff history!

Meanwhile, the Yankees yet again overcame an early deficit and stole home field advantage away from the wins. Lost in the shuffle will be Cliff Lee's terrific start against a potent Rays offense. Lee was lights out, giving up five hits and one run over seven innings while striking out ten.

On the surface, it sounds like a silly question: Does Derek Lowe or Tim Lincecum have the edge in Game 1 of the NLDS Series between the Atlanta Braves and the San Francisco Giants?

On one hand, you have the two-time NL Cy Young Award winner in Lincecum, and on the other, is the Braves “15 million dollar mistake” in Lowe. Yet when you look deeper, Lowe might be better suited to pitch in this game than you would think.